Springfield daily republic. [volume] (Springfield, O. [Ohio]) 1887-1888, 1887-01-12


Ing Mites for D-po.it-A Curious As
sortment Of Person. in Line Early
Monday Morning.
BY common consent, not less than by
necessity, Monday IL made the busy day.
Then the bulk Of the deposits are made.
The bank doors are opened at A, NJ,
and are not closed until ? =. VI. The first
few stragglers are firemen, whose engines
are waiting for water and fuel They
draw their pay late on saturday evening,
hoard it over Sunday and put il away the
first thing on Monday. What temptations
some of them must resist in that thirty
four or thirty-five hours, Among these
early corners woman appears, thinly
clad, hanging on the arm of her young
husband, whose slouchy look and shuf-
fling gait are infaIlible signs that he is
travelling the wrong road to reach pros
perity and happiness. Perhaps they have
a baby at the place they call home, and
she has left II that she may come here
with her wayward partner to see their pit
tance put beyond the immediate reach Of
the grug shop. How me must have
schemed and planned all day Sunday to
keep her good man by her side. away from
temptation, where she could play the
watchdog over their III: Serable treasure
until 1t was In the hands of other guard
iahs! II the restless man wanted to go
upon the street she threw on her shawl
aud went with him; il he insisted ON hay
ing dram she took a pitcher and got him
beer with her own hands, and persuaded
him to drink II in his room. Not for an
instant did she lose sight Of him. Nobody
knows what strnta"r'ns such wives use 10
save their husbands and their children
aRd--last of sll-themselves, from going
10 the dogs. And can sunday be q day of
rest 10 them with such breakers ahead
Why would il not he better il Friday were
made pay day, SO that these people could
put away their earnings without this dan
geruus holding over for thirty odd hours
Or why not open the savings banks on
Sunday, Has either plan been tried III
this city,
As day comes on and the city begins tn
wake up the stragglers into the bank give
way to procession. A curious assortment
OF persons forms the line that, beginning
at the grated window marked Receiving
Teller" stretches down the length Of the
office. curves to the left, i'll the form Of Il
horseshoe and doubling back extends be
yond the starting point into the lobby
from which it i fed. This lobby reminds
one of the hopper i'll an old fashioned
country Srist mill. With their blue bank
books in hand the people crowd into the
small place, twisting in and out, through
and between. pushing and squeezing this
way and that way. elbOwing their neigh
| bOrs, and finally catching on to the line
OF march in precisely the same manner
as the corn in the hopper finds its way
| TO the jaws of the millstOnes. Glance at
the line as It slowly pays out Of the hop
per and files by the grated window. See
the old woman, now nervously fumblilg
| in the pocket OF her too shiny alpaca
| dress for few coins to make up the
dollar she has come to deposit. savings
| of week! Yesterday she went without
dinner and fire rather than rob herself Of
| one penny. She must have worn that
remnant OF bonnet for ten years, Judging
by its looks. Her shoeS-you couldn t call
| them shoes; they are patches Of old leather
sewn together somewhat in tho shape of
shoes Stockings, Why you can see the
skin Of her foot through the broad seam.
ree-fOur-five-Gned dol
! lar: all right, says the teller. He makes
few figures in her book and hands it
| back to her. The little. slender figure is
unceremoniously pushed on by the revolv
! ing unpinding process going on in the
| hopper, and the next person in line appears
face to face with the teller.
| Next comes on woman of middle age
once short, blonde, fresh and fair; now
still short. but faded and wrinkled. She
| has the lackluster eye so common in pr
sons who belong in what may surely lc
called even in democratic America. The
! disappointed class-an eye from which ali
hone Of happiness long since fed. She has
seen better days; she married beneath her
and her husband dragged her down. Too
| late now to rise, woman. Your life is
wrecked Nothing TO live for but death.
But for whom is she laying up that money!
| She gives the teller some notes and be
counts them out, So The hopper grinds
! on. she is forced aside and disappears in
| the street.
| The next person in the line is a young
girl, evidently sent by her mother 10
make a deposit. She gives no indication
of the circumstances of her family, though
any one may see by her untidy dress that
| her mother. he she comfortable or needy,
is careless sort of person who doesn't
believe in the next thing TO godliness.
Behind the girl is a man whom you
would take to be a miser, simply because
| of his repulsive appearance. He is about
| five feet four inches, and carries between
his shoulder blades a hump that dwarfs
| and stoOps him, causes his neck to seem
much shorter than it is, and pushes his
head forward to an angle Of 45 degs., so
that il Is not easy for him to raise his
eyes To look straight before him He car
| ries walking stick, and YOU may easily
| imagine that his room in some Houston
street garret is the abode of cats, and
snakes, and a crow or two, in whose COM
panionship he finds what he imagines is
| sublunary happiness. But il a miser
| he Is of a new breed, for who ever heard
Of one OF the old kind keeping his money
in u hanks He deposits $50 and moves on.
Behind him is 4 poor fellow who has
been doing the work of Sisyphus for
twenty years. He has the poor mans mis-
fortune-a big family--and whenever his
bank account begins to grow one of the
| "childers' needs the doctor, and suddenly
| the money is all gone. Then he begins
over again, with the same result, and so it
| goes on, year after year. If / can only
get a start" is his refrain to the cesseless
song of his disappointments. Next comes
young mother leading her little girl by
the hand, and smiling at the child's
pranks There must be sunshine in her
home Her industrious husband, too busy
to come TO the bank, makes her the
chancellor Of the eYchequer. To-day she
adds $40 to their steadily increasing fund
and joyfully goes her way. About four
persons in ten who pass the receiving tel
ler seem TO care little for life in the alb
stract; the other six appear contented and
reasonably happy. II there is any one
thing calculated TO produce n feeling of
supreme satisfaction in man it is q grow
ing bank account; so there ought to be a
! larger nrOpOrtion OF happy persons abOut